"We came out early and set the tone," Alliance head coach Larry Kukura said. "We're quick and we're unselfish."

Senior forward J.J. Kukura, one of four senior starters for the Aviators (20-2) has been the main scorer all season and he continued that trend against the Hornets, tallying a game-high 33 points to increase his career total to 1,591 and move past Northwest's Joe Concheck (1,585 points) into fourth place on Stark County's all-time scoring list.

"J.J. is a great scorer and a great player, but he also has a great surrounding cast," lauded Kirtland head coach Matt Ridgeway. They have great team chemistry."

Ridgeway played high school basketball at United Local in the mid 1990s, when Larry Kukura was head coach.

"Larry's a friend of mine," Ridgeway added. "He's had success at Alliance, but he's worked at it and his team this year works hard."

Kirtland (12-9), which had won 10 of its 12 previous games, was paced by 5-11 senior point guard Anthony Veneri with 12 points and 5-9 junior point guard Matt Grazia with 10 points. Veneri and Grazia were a combined 5-of-6 from three-point range.

With J.J. Kukura leading the way, the Aviators sank 12 of their first 17 floor shots (71 percent) to take an insurmountable 32-11 lead at the 5:46 mark of the second quarter.

"We knew they would play hard and we knew they had some good basketball players after playing them in the past, so we were ready," J.J. Kukura said. "Besides, you never want to take anyone for granted. That's when you get beat."

Disrupting the Hornets with their 1-3-1 trap which created 10 turnovers in the middle two quarters, the Aviators moved ahead 40-17 at halftime and extended their lead to 58-27 at the 2:59 mark of the third quarter.

"We didn't play with the passion we needed in the second quarter," Ridgeway said. "You can't give away quarters against a good team like Alliance."

Kukura moved ahead of Concheck at the 6:35 mark of the fourth quarter, taking an outlet pass from Dickson and rattling home a dunk in transition before Larry Kukura removed his five starters with Alliance leading 71-49 with 4:29 left in the fourth quarter.

"Our last group has to handle the ball better and play better defense, but this was a good win and it was a heck of a regular season," Larry Kukura closed.

Alliance scored 28 field goals on 15 assists. Martin led the Aviators with five assists. Dickson and Kukura dished out three apiece

Alliance led 41-27 in rebounds. Kukura grabbed a game-high 11 boards for the Aviators.